Hands On With The NGP's Brand-New Uncharted, And A Deviant Surprise

Another techy Sony product with more big promises. We've been here before, right? Not this time, though. If the NGP, or Sony's Next Generation Portable, seems different, it's because the way the portable lets gamers game. There's something about the NGP that is simple, something that pops. Nintendo might've pioneered touch-based gaming, but Sony is taking it in an entirely different direction.
On the rear of the portable, there is a touchpad that is the same size as the screen. In the game demo I played of upcoming NGP title Little Deviants, players use the rear touchpad to manipulate cute balls around a lush cartoon landscape. But by pressing on the rear touchpad, it appears as though players' fingers stick up underneath the terrain, altering the landscape.By pressing on the rear touchpad, it appears as though players' fingers stick up underneath the terrain, altering the landscape.

So by moving one's fingers around, the landscape changes as new mountains are formed. But, if players stop touching the rear touchpad, the landscape returns to normal. It's a lot like putting your hand under a table cloth and moving it around a table. The game's mechanic was compelling enough to help sway Sony into including the rear touchpad. The game does feel a bit like a tech demo for the rear touchpad, but not in a bad way. It also offers the interesting feature of being able to "pinch" the cute ball characters on the front touch screen, causing them to slingslot.
According to Sony's Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, the hope is that developers will also use the rear touchpad as extra buttons or even shortcuts for commands. It opens up an entirely new way to game.
Even familiar moves in Uncharted, the second game I demoed, are given a new spin on the NGP. Using the rear touchpad, player brush their fingers up to have the game's hero, Nathan Drake, shimmy up vines. It feels a bit like you're massaging the NGP, and pressing up on the thumbstick probably makes more sense.
The addition of touch controls on the front screen worked well in Uncharted. Players can tap vines and ledges, causing Drake to jump towards them automatically. It makes the gameplay easier than the traditional Uncharted on the PS3, but it works. The touch feature that I liked the best in Uncharted was the ability to use a swipe motion on the front screen due to the close proximity of the thumbsticks. So controlling Drake and the camera with the two thumbsticks, and then using a swipe on the touchscreen felt very natural and hardly gimmicky.
And the dual thumb "nubs" made this Uncharted feel like...Uncharted. The addition of the additional thumb nub truly gives this portable a PlayStation feel, replicating the experience of using two thumbsticks like on the PS3 controller. It's not hobbled like the PSP, which only has one thumb nub.
In the demo, I played enemy AI seemed to be a bit lacking, as I easily snuck up behind an enemy, and pressed on him via the front touchscreen, causing Drake to shove him off a climb. No doubt the AI was dumbed down so people could easily experience the press commands.The NGP does not produce PS3 level graphics, and Sony's Yoshida was quick to point that out: "It's close to the PS3."

While the game looks like it's a port of the first Uncharted, the game is actually a brand new title. Thus, it has new features, like the ability to have Drake snap photos. There is a camera icon on the screen that can be pressed, bringing up photo mode. The input for photo mode uses the gyroscope, so moving the NGP around gives a different view of the landscape. Pinching the screen causes it to zoom, and touching it snaps a photo. There is also a first-person sniper mode. I picked up a sniper rifle in the game, and clicking the left shoulder button took me into sniper mode. Aiming, however, was then gyroscope-controlled. Sony seemed unsure if aiming in sniper mode would only be gyroscope-controlled as the game is still in development.
Besides a new Uncharted for the NGP, new Killzone and Resistance titles are being worked on for the NGP.
During today's presentation, the footage of Uncharted for NGP looked very close to PS3 level graphics — not quite PS3, but close. However, Capcom's Lost Planet 2 looked blocky with heavy pixelated backgrounds. If Uncharted on NGP looked close to the PS3, Lost Planet looked close to the PS2.
The NGP does not produce PS3 level graphics, and Sony's Yoshida was quick to point that out. "It's close to the PS3. You feel like it's the PS3." He's right, it is very close, thanks to developer tech like shaders, something like Uncharted looks very near to PS3 level graphics. They're not the same, but there either in the same ballpark or playing the same game.
The footage that third party developers showed today of Yakuza 4 or Metal Gear Solid 4 running on NGP are demos of what is possible on Sony's handheld. But tonight in Sony's Shinagawa headquarters, the company showed off two titles, Little Deviant and Uncharted, that show more than promises and what ifs, but playable reality.

Ahh man i hope 3rd party developers can keep up with the tech, Since 3rd party games get more limelight if they fail to impress the mainstream will see it. Already Lost Planet 2 was stated to look like ps2 games, while Uncharted psp2 looks more like a ps3, that too big of a margin in developing skills.

Sony Send out some of your best developers to put in some imput on the games that 3rd party makes. If they look good you look good

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

The Views and opinions of forum member cpitt, do not represent the views and opinions of ps3forums and any known associates, mods

Engadget it reporting it will be out in time for the 2011 holiday season, which is a pretty good date if you ask me. The design looks great, I'm kind of glad they didn't go with the sliding design, this seems like a more ergonomically correct design. Looks very slick, and the graphics look amazing for a device so small. Uncharted looked really good. I definitely don't think the graphics are PS3 quality, but these games are first generation software, so later down the line of the life of NGP, I bet we'll get pretty close to something like Uncharted 2.

It all comes down to what Sony is going to price this thing. This single piece of information alone will determine whether this device will fail or succeed. Obviously (at least I hope it's obvious..), they're not going to price NGP above the price of the PS3, so we can probably get a price below $299. I mean come on, who's gonna buy a NGP for $299 when you can get an all-in-one home entertainment system for the same price? I hope this is what Sony is thinking, but I doubt they were. Honestly, if they were thinking to price it above $299, they should have removed features. NO ONE is going to buy this thing if it's above $299, just doesn't make sense. And frankly, I don't see the need for 2 cameras... a front-facing camera would've been good enough for me.

All in all, the device itself looks amazing and I can't wait to play it, but I won't be buying one unless the price is right.

Sony Bend are working on Uncharted, kinda hoped it would be Naughty Dog but its better than a no name dev. Still will probably buy most 3rd party games like with PSP because the big name Sony devs don't work on the PSP/2, sadly.

Engadget it reporting it will be out in time for the 2011 holiday season, which is a pretty good date if you ask me. The design looks great, I'm kind of glad they didn't go with the sliding design, this seems like a more ergonomically correct design. Looks very slick, and the graphics look amazing for a device so small. Uncharted looked really good. I definitely don't think the graphics are PS3 quality, but these games are first generation software, so later down the line of the life of NGP, I bet we'll get pretty close to something like Uncharted 2.

It all comes down to what Sony is going to price this thing. This single piece of information alone will determine whether this device will fail or succeed. Obviously (at least I hope it's obvious..), they're not going to price NGP above the price of the PS3, so we can probably get a price below $299. I mean come on, who's gonna buy a NGP for $299 when you can get an all-in-one home entertainment system for the same price? I hope this is what Sony is thinking, but I doubt they were. Honestly, if they were thinking to price it above $299, they should have removed features. NO ONE is going to buy this thing if it's above $299, just doesn't make sense. And frankly, I don't see the need for 2 cameras... a front-facing camera would've been good enough for me.

All in all, the device itself looks amazing and I can't wait to play it, but I won't be buying one unless the price is right.

Actually, I bet the price is going to be like $350. That sounds about right for a new Sony product.

I think it may work well for some games but overall i would have preferred a large L2/R2 button on the back. Like a flappy paddle gearbox we see on automatic cars

I think Sony made that to have games more for the casual audience. Like that touch pad could be used to pet animals, arcade sport games etc... I think games we see on the iphone will use the touch pad and touch screen the most.( a bit obvious i know )

I personally thought this was a great idea. I really like touch screen gaming, but the only problem is that touch screen gaming either has no buttons (mobile phones) or requires you to remove your hand to touch it so that hand can't access the buttons (DS). The NGP solves both problems at once (touch screen while accessing buttons with both hands).

Depends how they use it. They could use it in a CoD game seeing as your lacking R2/L2 and maybe R3/L3 (does anyone know if the analogue sticks have buttons?) you could use the back for gestures (Swipe up right side for 'nades, left side for Flashbangs, Slash across the back for stab and line in the middle for sprint. I dunno lol) it could be interesting. I just hope it's not too sensitive.

Hell to the yeah. Close to PS3 visuals on a hand held. Good stuff. It will also be using a new type of high capacity flash card for devs to put games on. Which means they are still doing physical media!! Flippin sweet.

Sony Bend are working on Uncharted, kinda hoped it would be Naughty Dog but its better than a no name dev. Still will probably buy most 3rd party games like with PSP because the big name Sony devs don't work on the PSP/2, sadly.

Bend are a pretty good dev. I wouldn't worry too much. I'm really glad SONY has this wealth of devs out there to truly exploit all the features of a system like this.

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